The Orioles are heading into a four-day stretch that could shape everything about their season, and maybe more than that. Between three games against the Phillies, the Hall of Fame induction for Chris Davis, Storm Davis and superscout Jim Russo, and Monday’s trade deadline, this is not just another weekend on the calendar. The Orioles are expected to buy, but the next few days will tell whether that plan holds up.
Wednesday’s wild 10-9, 12-inning comeback over Detroit only sharpened the stakes. After getting blasted 14-0 the day before, the Orioles were down 7-0, had already made three official errors and looked completely out of it.
By the seventh inning, they had been counted out. Then they clawed all the way back and stole a game that suddenly gives this weekend a different feel.
There were real takeaways from that Tigers series, starting with Jackson Holliday. The second baseman went 8-for-11, hit .370 in July and delivered a key hit in the 11th against left-hander Drew Sommers.
He’s one of the young players who looks like he should be in the lineup every day, not stuck in a platoon setup. The Orioles, at least from the outside, seem to be handling him in a way that slows his growth rather than accelerates it.
Coby Mayo fits into that same conversation. When the Orioles signed Pete Alonso to a five-year, $155 million deal, they boxed Mayo into a role that doesn’t really suit him.
Alonso gives the lineup a veteran presence and signaled that the Orioles were willing to spend to fix the problems of the 2025 season. But Mayo still looks like he could develop into a serious power bat if the organization commits to him.
He showed in Detroit that he can handle right-handers, but his opportunities are limited because he is not an everyday third baseman, Alonso is locked in at first, and Craig Albernaz wants to keep both Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo in the lineup when they are healthy.
Colton Cowser also made his case in the comeback, lining the game-winning hit against Sommers after falling behind 0-2. He keeps flashing the kind of tools that make you think he can be an everyday player: the big homer, the highlight-reel catch, the ability to change a game.
But his season has swung hard in both directions. He likes fastballs, has trouble with offspeed stuff, and the Orioles handed the center field job to Leody Taveras too early.
Cowser looked like he had center field back, then found himself in a part-time role again, which leaves his place in the future a real question.
Gunnar Henderson is in a different spot, because nobody is taking his job. Even so, this has not been the season many expected from him.
His hit in the seventh started the comeback, and his poise in the 10th helped the Orioles turn an inning-ending double play. He keeps playing hard, even with misplays and missed chances at the plate.
The issue is consistency.
That same word hangs over the whole club.
“We have so much talent on this team,” president of baseball operations Mike Elias said last Friday before the Orioles lost two of three to the Braves. “I think we all look at the record, and we’re like, ‘Our record should be better.’
“There’s a lot of ways that it could have been, and health’s been a big part of it. I think we could have played better and executed better and done things differently.
Top to bottom, but where we’re at right now, we’re within arm’s reach of the playoff spot. We’ve got enough time to get there.
“We’re coming up on the [trade] deadline, so the next several games are really important and everybody’s focused on these next several games, but I look at the talent on his team and we’re extremely optimistic that we can get where we want to go.”
That leaves Elias with a tough call. He can stay with a young core that still hasn’t lived up to expectations but might yet carry the Orioles over the next two months, or he can start reshaping the roster to fix the obvious holes, especially on defense and in the bullpen. No one is carrying more pressure into this weekend than the man who built the team from the ground up.